At my old high school, I never had friends. I never had true ones at least.

I always felt like a loner. I had this feeling that I could not integrate anywhere and no matter what I did, the people around me never felt like the ones I really needed in my life.

When I moved to Storm Hills, I did not think that it would change at my new high school. I did not plan on having my own group of friends but somehow, I ended up having one and it was all thanks to Emma.

Emma was the first girl that came and talked to me. It was out of nowhere with no particular reason. She seemed nice so when she invited me to come to join her at lunch, I accepted. I met her friends and since then I had been hanging out with them, even though, it still confused me as to why they had accepted to let me enter their group.

So that explained why I was here, sitting at this table, surrounded by people who all had their eyes on me. It was annoying. I was trying to have lunch with my supposed new friends but it seemed like they were more busy staring at me than actually eating.

"So Buffy, I heard that you talked to Cloud," Nicolas started and I rolled my eyes.

"My name's Luffy, not Buffy, but yes. I talked to Cloud. What do you have to say about it?" I asked him. Before he could answer, Jennifer beat him to it.

"Have you lost your mind?" she asked me.

"That's exactly what I told him," Emma said and I sighed miserably. I ignored them and continued to eat my lunch.

Emma happened to have seen me talk to Cloud in the library yesterday and even though, it happened only once, she made it her mission to annoy my life with it. She wasn't happy, she did not appreciate that I talked to the devil and of course, she had to tell the others about this story. She couldn't have just kept her mouth shut.

"What did you two talked about?" Ken, Jennifer's boyfriend, asked me and I looked at him.

"We talked about things," I simply replied.

"We know. But what type of things?" Gina, another one of my friends, asked.

Everyone stared at me eagerly, waiting for an answer. I sighed before putting down my hamburger and looked at each one of them.

Honestly, I didn't want to tell them. This conversation was between me and Cloud and not anyone else. It was none of their business but I couldn't tell them that. They would surely get angry at me and I didn't need that right now.

"We talked a little bit about non-important things and we read and that's all," I told them, making it simple.

"That's all?" Ken asked me in disbelief, "There is not more to it?"

"Nope," I replied. Emma looked at me as if she knew that I was lying but she didn't say anything and neither did I.

"You could have asked him some juicy things, Luffy," Gina scolded me.

"Juicy things...?" I asked with my eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes," Jennifer agreed, "You could have asked him things like, why he is the way he is? Or why does he do all of those horrible things? Or even why did he kill people?"

"Jennifer, Luffy can't do that. He doesn't have enough balls," Nicolas said and I glared at him.

"Nicolas!" Emma exclaimed and he shrugged.

"What? It's the truth," he said.

"But you-," Emma started but I cut her off.

"Nicolas is right; I would never ask Cloud those questions. But not because I don't have enough balls, it's because I don't want to. All the things that are said about him are just rumors and besides, if you want to know the answers to these questions, why don't you ask him yourself?" I asked them.

"There is no way in hell I'm going near that freak," Ken said.

"Yeah, it's the same for me. He's too scary," Jennifer said.

"But I have to say that he is extremely hot and that I would like to put him in my bed," Gina confessed and Jennifer made an approval noise while Ken and Nicolas looked at them like they had lost their mind.

"Please. Maybe Cloud is hot but he is completely deranged and everybody should stay away from him," Emma said, looking at me when she said the last part and I looked away.

"Okay," Ken said, "Enough talk about Cloud. Let's talk about something more exciting, like the party that there is tonight."

"A party?" I asked. I didn't hear about that.

"Yes. Didn't you know?" Emma asked me and I shook my head.

"It's going to be the biggest party ever. Since you are a newbie here you must come, Luffy," Jennifer said excitedly. 

"Yes. We are going to party like animals tonight," Nicolas said and he and Ken clapped their hands.

"Sorry but I can't," I said before I took a sip of my drink.

"What? You must come. What do you have much better to do on a Friday night?" Gina asked me.

"My aunt and uncle are coming at my place tonight for a family dinner so sorry I can't," I explained to them.

"But can't you sneak out?" Emma asked me and I shook my head.

"Everybody is going to come to this party. You are going to miss something if you don't," Ken told me.

"And it will not be fun without you, Luf. Come. It will be your first party with us as a whole group," Emma pleaded. Did she just call me Luf?

"There are going to be other parties, guys. So no, I won't. I can't come," I said and I didn't say anything else after that.

The others continued to talk about the party while I ate my lunch quietly. I listened to them talk while regularly I would look around to see if I saw Cloud but no. He wasn't there. Where did he go again?

The bell rang, signaling us that lunch was over and everyone started to get out of the cafeteria. The others and I stood up and walked out of the cafeteria.

"What do you have now, Luffy?" Emma asked me as we all got out of the cafeteria.

"History," I replied and Ken made a face of horror.

"I hate history," Ken said.

"That's because you always fail that class," Nicolas said as he put his arms around Emma's waist. Did I forget to mention that Nicolas was Emma's boyfriend?

"Don't be too hard on him, Nico," Emma said and leaned her head against her boyfriend's shoulder as they walked.

"Yeah, he tries his very best," Gina said but there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"I hate all of you, except you Luffy," Ken said with a smile and I smiled back.

"Don't be like that, baby. You know you love me," Jennifer said and kissed Ken on the lips as he put his arms around his waist.

"Get a room, you two," Gina said.

"That's exactly what we are going to do tonight, Gina," Ken said with a smirk and everyone, including me made a face of horror.

"Okay. I didn't need to know that," I said and everybody laughed, "I have to go search for my things in my locker but I will see you later in English," I told them and they all nodded.

"See you later, Buffy," Nicolas said and I groaned.

"It's Luffy," I said as I walked away.

The corridors were full of students, walking towards their class as I made my way towards my locker. By the time I arrived in front of it, the corridors were already empty.

I sighed before removing my history book from my locker. Personally, I hated history. There were too many dates to remember and why did I need to learn about people's past? They were already dead so let them rest in peace.

I closed my locker when I got all of the things that I needed. I turned around and started to walk but then stopped when I saw a boy standing at the end of the corridor.

There was nothing with him. He was just standing with his hands in his pocket, looking at me weirdly. I looked behind me to see if he was looking at someone else but no. There was nobody. We were the only one standing here in the corridor. I looked back at the boy who was now examining me from up and down.

I gulped nervously as I made my way in his direction. I didn't have a choice. I had to pass this way to go to my history class. If I took another way I was going to be late. The boy continued to stare at me before his lips broke into a smile. Now, it was my turn to look at him weirdly.

"Are you Luffy?" he asked me and I stopped a few centimeters away from him.

"Yes and you are?" I asked him warily and he smiled before extending his hand.

"I'm Rain," he replied and I looked at him confused. He then added, "I'm Cloud's brother."

"What? Cloud has a brother?" I exclaimed, surprised and he let out a laugh.

Now that I looked at the boy clearly, he did look like Cloud.

"Yeah, now, are you going to take my hand or not?" Rain asked, showing me his hand.

"Sorry," I said as I finally took his hand and shook it.

"Cloud was right. You are really cute," he said out of nowhere and I blinked, processing his words.

"What did you just say?" I asked him to repeat and he chuckled.

"Nothing, little Luffy," he brushed it off and I nodded, even though I was slightly confused, "So, were you going to class?"

"Yeah, I have history," I replied to him, showing him the book in my hand and he hummed softly.

"Let me take you there," he declared and before I could say anything, he placed his arm around my shoulders and dragged me to my class. The sudden contact took me off guard but I did not protest nor did I push him away from me.

"Don't you have a class of your own to attend?" I asked him and I noticed that he had nothing with him, no bags nor books. "And where are your things?"

"I don't need them," he replied. "I'm skipping class but don't tell anyone."

My eyebrows furrowed but I did not comment on what he just said. It was strange. I heard so much about Cloud but his brother was never mentioned, not even once. Did people know that they were related or was it a secret? Though, if it was a secret, why would he come to me and present himself as Cloud's brother? Why did he even come to talk to me?

That just did not make any sense. I did not even recall seeing him around the high school.

We finally arrived in front of my classroom and Rain opened the door without knocking. He entered the class first, followed by me. My history teacher, Mr Clark, was already there and he gave us a hard look but Rain looked back at him with a smile.

"Sorry for being late, Mr Clark. I happened to bump into the little Luffy in the hallway and I'm afraid to have taken a few minutes of his time," Rain explained and not waiting for the teacher's reply, he turned to me, "You can now go to your seat. We'll continue our little chat another time."

With that said he grabbed my hand and unexpectedly, placed a kiss on top of it. My eyes opened wide and it was the same reaction for everyone else in the class. Rain did not stay another second here and walked out of the room without another word, though, I saw the little smile on his face. Startled, I walked to my seat; my head down as all eyes were on me. Thankfully, the teacher quickly captured everyone's attention and I let out a breath of relief.

What just happened here?